#65: Make space for assistants and assistive devices

In order to discourage noise, many workstations in public libraries are designed to accommodate only a single user in a standard office chair. However, it’s very common for someone who faces barriers to using the library to need more space than that workstation design allows. In fact, it’s a surprisingly consistent need across a pretty wide range of patrons. Someone who comes in using a wheelchair (or crutches or other device for a physical disability), someone who has an service animal, someone who doesn’t have the language skills/computer skills/cognitive processing capacity to use a library computer on their own and needs to bring a helper with them, even a patron who is homeless and has nowhere to leave his large bag with all his possessions—all of these patrons will have trouble using a standard-size workstation. Can you rearrange your space to accommodate that reality that many people who come into the library need more space, even if they are working alone?